The mission of the center is to provide coordinated research activities focused on the impact of nutrition during pregnancy on health of the mother, fetus, and offspring.

"Research over the last 75 years has demonstrated that maternal nutrition has a dramatic impact on birth weights and long-term health and productivity in humans and animals." - Dr. Larry Reynolds, CNP Co-Director

The CNP performs interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research focused on the influence of 1) undernutrition, 2) overnutrition, and 3) specific nutrients on:

placental/fetal growth and development
maternal metabolic adaptation to pregnancy, and
long-term health and productivity of the neonate and adult offspring.

These studies are conducted using several animal models, including adolescent or aged pregnancies, differing fetal and maternal genotypes, and pregnancies with single or multiple fetuses.

"The overall goal is to understand how nutrition impacts prenatal and postnatal development." - Dr. Joel Caton, CNP Co-Director